'Madam, my first wife was a Percy and she never took such a liberty.'
Charles, Duke of Somerset, to his second wife when she tapped him with her fan to attract his attention. For this, she was left out of his will.
(Roberts, Cecil; And so to Bath; Northumberland Press, Ltd., Gatehead-upon-Tyne; 1940; p. 114)

'I care not if I live but a day and a night, so long as my deeds live after me'
Attributed to Cuchulain who defended the Gap of North Ireland despite having many wounds, until a raven landed on his shoulder and drank his blood.
(Kiberd, Declan; Irish Literature and History; in the Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland, ed. Foster, Ray F.; Oxford University Press; Oxford; 1991; p. 288)

'there's a great gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed'
Pegeen Mike in 'The Playboy of the Western World'
(Synge, Jogn M. in 'The Playboy of the Western World' in Kiberd, Declan; Irish Literature and History; in the Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland, ed. Foster, Ray F.; Oxford University Press; Oxford; 1991; p. 289)

'Lord, I shall be verie busy this day
I may forget thee but do not Thou forget me.'
Lord Astley before the Battle of Newbury, the final battle of the English Civil War. He surrendered to the Parlimentarians.
(Sale, Richard; Visitors' Guide: Cotswolds; Moorland Publishing Co., Ltd., Ashbourne, UK; 1989; p. 64)

'The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.'
Sir Edward Grey, Liberal Foreign Secretary to an aide on August 4th, 1914, as he stood by a Whitehall window and the time limit of Britain's ultimatum to Germany (midnight) to halt the invasion of Belgium drew closer.
(Arnstein, Walter L.; Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present; D. C. Heath & Co., Lexington, MA, USA; 1992; p. 245)

'I think I did as well as might be expected, seated as I was between Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte.'
David Lloyd George on being criticized on the resultant treaty from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which was not idealistic enough for Woodrow Wilson or stringent enough for the French.
(Arnstein, Walter L.; Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present; D. C. Heath & Co., Lexington, MA, USA; 1992; p. 266)

'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. You ask, "What is our policy?" I will say, "It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might...against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime..." You ask, "What is our aim?" I can answer in one word, "Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be." '
Winston Churchill on his first appearance in the House of Commons, 1940
(Arnstein, Walter L.; Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present; D. C. Heath & Co., Lexington, MA, USA; 1992; p. 322-3)

At the same time this speech was made, Britain had been tyranically suppressing the independence movement in India and other colonies for more than a century. After France and Holland were liberated, both countries went on to tyrannize Vietnam and Indonesia respectively. Hypocrisy...

'boldly planned, bravely executed, and brilliantly accomplished'
Prime Minister Thatcher describing the British recapture of the Falkland Islands in 1982
(Arnstein, Walter L.; Britain Yesterday and Today: 1830 to the Present; D. C. Heath & Co., Lexington, MA, USA; 1992; p. 425)

In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities. (Wikipedia) Was it worth it?

'The language he used was so foul and filthy it scorched my earholes.'
Danny, describing Mr. Hazell's language
(Dahl, Roald; Danny, the Champion of the World; Puffin Books, London; 2001; p. 189)

'The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes, there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began, murderous strife was universal and unending.'
(Churchill, Winston; in Kendrick Keith; Aggression: The Biology of War and Peace; Gresham College Lecture, London; January 13, 2004)

Monkey: "As they used to say in the old days, 'Make a move and your
fortune's one third made.' "
(Cheng'en, Wu; Journey to the West; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, PRC; 1997; p. 1556)

Monkey: "Your Majesty, you should no more judge people by their faces than you'd measure the sea with a bucket."
(Cheng'en, Wu; Journey to the West; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, PRC; 1997; p. 1622)

Monkey: As the saying goes, "Your teacher for a day is your father for the rest of your life."
(Cheng'en, Wu; Journey to the West; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, PRC; 1997; p. 1640)

Pig: "Once you've been tricked by a confectioner you won't believe sweet-talkers again."
(Cheng'en, Wu; Journey to the West; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, PRC; 1997; p. 1660)

Monkey: "How true is it," Monkey said, "that while good deeds stay at home, bad deeds are known far and wide."
(Cheng'en, Wu; Journey to the West; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, PRC; 1997; p. 1686)

"Great grief would return in the midst of rejoicing;
"Extremes," says the classic, "create their negation."
Fated were they to meet with disaster,
A star of ill-omen to mark desolation.
(Cheng'en, Wu; Journey to the West; Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, PRC; 1997; p. 1756)